230 
CAT. 
to these animals ; and supported them in this man- 
ner by public alms, which were very adequate to the 
purpose. 
Cats, who prey by night, derive a particular ad- 
vantage from the peculiar structure of their eyes. 
The pupil in man and the generality of animals 
has its power of contraction and dilatation confined 
within certain limits. It enlarges a little when the 
light is faint, and contracts when the light is too 
splendid. But this motion, though very percepti- 
ble, is nothing when compared with the pupil of 
cats, night-birds, and owls, whose power of altering 
the figure of that part of the eye is so great, that 
the pupil will vary, according to the degree of light 
or darkness, from a perfect circle to a narrow line. 
Hence these animals see better in the night than 
in the day, when the pupil is so perpetually con- 
tracted that they seem to have but an imperfect 
vision. It is in the twilight that they begin to en- 
joy a perfect sight; the glare of the day no longer 
incommodes them ; the pupil reassumes its proper 
roundness, and the animals proceed to discover and 
surprise their prey. They are strongly attached to 
their kittens, and have even been known to suckle, 
with tenderness and affection, the young of other 
animals. Mr. White in his Natural History of Sel- 
borne has related the following instance : 
“ My friend had a little helpless leveret brought 
to him, which the servants had fed with milk from 
a spoon ; and about the same time his cat kittened, 
and the young were dispatched and buried. The 
